Dave's Song of the Day
Love on a Two-Way Street – The Moments
Sunday song of the day: The original singer of today’s song claims that she was wrongly denied songwriting credit for her contribution to the lyrics.
Vocal group The Moments had a big hit in 1970 with the song
Love on a Two-Way Street, but they were not the originators of the song. It was written two years earlier for another artist. Sylvia Robinson, the co-owner of All Platinum Records, had the idea for the song, based on a line that came to her, “Love on a two-way street, lost on a lonely highway.” Musician Bert Keyes and singer Lezli Valentine were present, and according to Valentine, all three contributed to the song, with Keyes writing the music, and Valentine writing the majority of the lyrics. When completed, they recorded the song, with Lezli Valentine singing.
Love on a Two-Way Street was released as a single in 1968 but didn’t sell very well. Songwriting was credited to Sylvia Robinson and Bert Keyes. According to Valentine, Robinson altered the lead sheet to remove her from the songwriting credit (and thus royalties).
On a failed single, this would cut Lezli Valentine out of some money, but not a huge amount. That wasn’t the end of the story, however. Robinson still felt the song had promise, so she had The Moments record it for their 1969 album,
Not on the Outside, But on the Inside, Strong! The album was released on the Stang Records label, which was a subsidiary of All Platinum. Initially, the song was just an album track, but several months later, in March 1970, it was released as a single. This time
Love on a Two-Way Street was a hit, staying at #1 on the Soul Singles chart for five weeks, and peaking at #3 on the overall
Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the process it sold over a million copies. Valentine not having a share of the royalties became much more significant then.
Even after the Moments record had run its course, the song continued to generate revenue for Robinson and Keyes, but not Valentine. Several years later, teenage singer Stacy Lattisaw recorded a cover version. Her 1981 recording of
Love on a Two-Way Street was a minor hit, placing at #26 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Valentine lost out on even more money from royalties when Jay-Z heavily sampled the Moments version of
Love on a Two-Way Street to create his 2009 recording
Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys.
The Moments, 1970
View: https://youtu.be/M5Dv37R6ATo
Lezli Valentine, 1968
View: https://youtu.be/_nOajAt7LSE
Stacy Lattisaw, 1981
View: https://youtu.be/VTiOUS0nSMY
Tomorrow: Floating weightless